In recent years, a digital camera has become popular, and a user generally manages or uses a large amount of image data. For example, image files captured by a digital camera are input to a computer, classified, edited, appreciated, printed, used for a homepage, sent to his friend by E-mail, or used as a material for a document.
Conventionally, methods have been proposed to suppress redundant inputs of the same file when the image file is to be input from a digital camera and saved in a computer or the like (for example, see Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 2000-354218 and 2001-069296).
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-354218 discloses an additional scheme for canceling an image on an image capturing device side such as a digital camera upon inputting an image file to a computer or the like. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-069296 discloses a scheme for placing a mark on an input image icon.
However, in the above-described conventional methods, when an image file is input to a computer or the like a plurality of number of times, or when the selected state of an image file changes even after inputting only once the image file for managing or using it, the input image file and its location cannot be determined on the computer side, thus posing a problem.
In contrast to this, it can be easily assumed to place a mark representing “unprocessed” on the icon of an image until the image file is managed or used after inputting the image. However, in this case, a user must reset the mark representing “unprocessed”, and a user operation becomes more complex.